The U.S. renaissance in charcuterie coupled with diners’ love of sausage makes housemade sausages a customer-satisfying, brand-building notion.

By Christopher Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC

More and more chefs at U.S. restaurants, hotels and clubs are wowing diners with interesting sausage inspirations that perfectly balance savory, sweet, spicy and smoky. Americans’ ever-increasing desire for good sausage is why culinary students enrolled at the Kendall College School of Culinary Arts in Chicago learn sausage-making during their first year of study.

Indeed, today’s sausages—as links, patties and crumbles—can showcase any ground meat combined with sufficient animal fat and any combination of a vast array of seasonings and other flavoring ingredients.

Thanks largely to chefs’ sausage inventiveness, the homemade-sausage trend is also propelled in part by growing consumer interest in enjoying fresh, locally grown and raised ingredients. European and other heritage sausages are enjoying a renaissance, too.

Good news for graduates this year is that foodservice in healthcare and B&I is projected to expand, says Technomic.

Even though most of the focus in the foodservice industry is on major restaurant chains, the noncommercial sector is also a thriving realm for foodservice. Noncommercial operations accounted for 34% of total U.S. foodservice sales in 2012, garnering more than $200 billion in sales (retail sales equivalent).

In 2013, Technomic expects the strongest (nominal) growth in the healthcare (4.5%) and business & industry (4.0%) segments. As a whole, noncommercial foodservice operations are forecast to grow 3.7%, representing many and varied opportunities for suppliers to the industry.

More popular than chocolate and potato chips, snacking occasions bearing fruit are growing.

Fresh fruit is not only the top snack food consumed in America, it is also one of the fastest growing, according to new snacking research from Port Washington, N.Y.-based The NPD Group, a global information company.  NPD’s recently released “Snacking in America” report finds that growing concerns about health and eating right are contributors to the increasing popularity of fruit as a snack.

It and 10 others join The Food Channel’s 2013 Trends Forecast. Smoked water, anyone? And “no choice” is becoming the new choice when dining out.

The Food Channel recently released its 2013 Trends Forecast, compiled in conjunction with CultureWaves® and the International Food Futurists®. Here’s an abridged look at what The Food Channel sees happening in the world of food this year. Click here for the full report.

1. Kickstarting New Food Concepts. Kickstarter, GoFundMe and other crowdfunding sites have been around a while, but we see them really kicking it up to a new level in the food and hospitality arena in the coming year. Got a new food product idea, or want to build a new restaurant? Go for it, and make it a crowdpleaser.

Cascade Culinary Institute builds a new culinary center whose physical and spatial attributes meld perfectly with its natural surroundings, facilitating student learning and the successful collaboration of education and community.

Located on the perimeter of the Central Oregon Community College (COCC) campus in Bend, Cascade Culinary Institute’s new Jungers Culinary Center is the anchor for a future mixed-use development, providing academic and commercial opportunities for the college and its students.

Portland-based Yost Grube Hall (YGH) Architecture collaborated with nationally recognized culinary and kitchen-design professionals to analyze the academic program and then develop a new curriculum and facility to support it. The new 15,000-sq.-ft. building reflects the college’s partnership with the region’s leading hospitality establishments and their staffs, resulting in a flexible facility program that will accommodate the culinary school’s needs for the next five to 10 years.